Dundalk Boy Falls In Love With Patten, Maine

In 1965, Sparrows Point natives, my Uncle Kenneth Clarke and Aunt Martha Clarke (nee Thomas) moved from Charlesmont, in Dundalk, to their newly purchased Katahdin Lodge and Camps of Patten, Maine. My mother's younger brother, Kenneth was a bricklayer for the Bethlehem Steel Mills, in Sparrows Point, Md.; and Martha worked "Down the Point", in Bethlehem Steel's Main Office. In Maine, Kenneth was known by his first name - Finley.

In November 1968, I went to Maine for a week and stayed a year. But the very first time I knew it was a place for me, was earlier, during the summer of '68. I have written a short story about that truly unique time from my Dundalk boy's teenage days, and that story has been published on several Maine based web sites - for several years. Here is how that story starts:

Patten, Maine is a little village way up in the Katahdin Valley. The first time that I ever went there to check out its small town social life was during the summer of 1968. I was an eighteen-year-old high school graduate, from suburban Dundalk, Maryland, visiting my aunt and uncle at their hunting lodge, Katahdin Lodge and Camps, in Moro, Maine. The lodge is located ten miles north of Patten, where the closest stores, restaurants, gas stations, and post office is. It is an easy, eleven-minute drive between the lodge and town.

How it goes from there, and the way it ends, is far friom where I ever thought that warm and wonderful summer evening would take me. Below is a link to the story on Maine's biggest and best outdoors activities website - Maine Outdoors Today. This well told, true (murder?) tale just might blow your mind. It sure did mine and for four of the sweetest little country girls a suburban boy could ever wanna be crammed in the backseat of a car with:

http://www.maineoutdoorstoday.com/DavidCrews/stories/i_fell_in_love_with_patten_maine.html